Kinnikinnick Foods Gluten Free Montana's Chocolate Chip Cookies have lots of chocolate chips making this a lunch box favorite with the school and the office crowd. Kinnikinnick Foods Gluten Free Montana's Chocolate Chip Cookies are appealing to all ages and do not have a boring artificial taste. Kinnikinnick Foods Gluten Free Montana's Chocolate Chip Cookies goes well with coffee or tea and is an ideal snack for growing kids who cannot tolerate wheat, gluten and dairy products.

Just how soft are the new Soft Breads & Buns after Freezing?How soft is your current bread after 7 months in the freezer? Kinnikinnick Foods said their new breads and buns remain soft after freezing and thawing. Now you can see for yourself.

FAQ

Ingredients

What Is Maltodextrin? Maltodextrin is made from corn. Maltodextrins are easily digestible carbohydrates made from natural corn starch. The starch is cooked, and then acid and/or enzymes are used to break the starch into smaller polymers (a process similar to that used by the body to digest carbohydrate). Generally sold as dried powders. Are polymers of dextrose (sometimes labeled "glucose polymers"). Do not contain significant quantities of protein, fat or fiber. Corn-based maltodextrins are not produced from and do not contain malt products. Corn-based maltodextrins are safe for patients with celiac disease since they do not contain proteins from wheat, barley, oats or rye. Maltodextrins are not known to contain MSG. Diabetics should follow the advice of their physicians. Maltodextrin's glycemic index should be considered metabolically equivalent to glucose (dextrose).What Is Inulin?Inulin, which is most commonly made from chicory, is a soluble fiber. Inulin is naturally occurring in many common fruits and vegetable including Asparagus, Banana, Chicory, Garlic, Leek, Jerusalem Artichoke and Onions. Inulin has been clinically shown to have many health benefits.

Experimental studies have shown their use as bifidogenic agents, stimulating the immune system of the body, decreasing the pathogenic bacteria in the intestine, relieving constipation, decreasing the risk of osteoporosis by increasing mineral absorption, especially of calcium, reducing the risk of atherosclerosis by lowering the synthesis of triglycerides and fatty acids in the liver and decreasing their level in serum. These fructans modulate the hormonal level of insulin and glucagon, thereby regulating carbohydrate and lipid metabolism by lowering the blood glucose levels; they are also effective in lowering the blood urea and uric acid levels, thereby maintaining the nitrogen balance. Inulin and oligofructose also reduce the incidence of colon cancer. Are there issues with Inulin? Of course, just as there are issues with every single ingredient they use. People can be allergic or intolerant to almost anything. "Generally, oligosaccharides are well tolerated. Some people reported increased flatulence in some of the studies. At higher levels of intake, that is, in excess of 40 grams per day, FOS and the other oligosaccharides may induce diarrhea." At lower doses, research shows that inulin may in fact help alleviate diarrhea. People may experience bloating and increased flatulence if their diets are naturally low in Inulin (ie: you don't eat Asparagus, Banana, Chicory, Garlic, Leek, Jerusalem Artichoke and Onions). This may also occur if their intestinal levels of bifidobacteria are low. The gas production is actually a natural result of the growth of these healthy bacteria promoted by the Inulin and subsides once a healthy balance is achieved in the gut. There have only been 2 cases of people worldwide who had anaphylactic reactions to inulin in products (these were not our products). People with severe allergies to Asparagus, Banana, Chicory, Garlic, Leek, Jerusalem Artichoke and Onions should probably avoid products with inulin, although this should be verified with your doctor.What is Kinnikinnick Foods' sugar source?Their sugar may be beet or cane depending on crop availability. Because of supplier seasonal shortages, they can not guarantee which source they may be using at a specific time.Why Don't They Use Stevia As A Sweetener?It is currently illegal in Canada and the US to use Stevia in baked products.Do Their Products Contain Preservatives?Their products do not contain preservatives. Note: Their seasonaloducts which contain dried fruit (Hot Cross Buns, Fruit Cake, Festive Bread) DO have a preservative. The fruit mixture contains Potassium Sorbate. They continue to look for a verifiable Gluten free dried fruit mixture that does not contain preservatives.Can You Tell Me What Ingredient X Is?Kinnikinnick Foodshas developed an Ingredient Primer to help you understand what the ingredients they use are, what their source is and why they use them. They've also added some of the more common GF and CF ingredients that they don't use but which you may run across in the grocery aisle.Does Kinnikinnick Foods' baking powder contain aluminum or corn?KinnActive Baking Powder is a double acting baking powder that is aluminum and corn free.Does Kinnikinnick Foods' salt contain Iodine?No. Their salt is pure Sodium Chloride with no additives.Does Kinnikinnick Foods' Sugar Come From Genetically Modified Sources?Both their Beet and Cane sugars are certified non-GMO by their supplier.

Products

Are Their Products Kosher?Yes. Kinnikinnick Foods facilities, and an extensive list of products, are certified OU kosher pareve by the Orthodox Union.Which Of Kinnikinnick Foods' Products Are Fortified?Currently their breads and buns are fortified. They are fortifying with Thiamine, Vitamin B2, Niacin, Folic Acid and Iron.How Should I Store Their Products?All of their soft baked products contain no preservatives and should be kept frozen until use. Cookies, mixes and raw ingredients do not need to be frozen. Store in a sealed container in a dry location.Do They Carry Gluten Free Oats?Most oats available in North America are NOT acceptable as they are contaminated with other gluten containing grains. Some studies have shown that some people may be able to tolerate Pure Uncontaminated Oats. Kinnikinnick Foods believes more studies are necessary to ensure the long term effects of oats in a Celiac Diet and have made the decision not to carry them at this time.Will The Bread Mix Produce The Same Results As Their Baked Bread?Their Bread Mixes are formulated for home use and are different that the mixes they use for their pre-baked bread and buns. Their pre-baked products require special equipment and processing techniques which are not suitable for home use.Can Kinnikinnick Foods' Mixes Be Used In A Bread Machine?None of their mixes are formulated for use in a bread machine. You may have some success using a machine with a Programmable cycle. Use a Quick bread cycle or program to not let mixture rest.What Is The Shelf Life Of Their Products?For best quality use before:

Frozen Goods - 8 months

Cookies - 1 year

Mixes - 1 year (minimum)

Why Don't They Have More Soy Free Products?When Kinnikinnick Foods made the decision to remove dairy from most of their products, the most widely available replacement for dairy ingredients are soy based. Once they made the switch they began to get more call from customers that soy was a problem. Over the past few years they have been working hard at the removal of soy from their products. They did remove soy from many of our products in 2004. About half of their products are currently soy free. However, there are physical properties which soy provides which have not yet been duplicated by industry and removing it greatly affects product quality. They are constantly evaluating new ingredients and technologies and they will remove soy when they can use another ingredient without compromising quality.Why Don't They Use Other Grains Like Teff? There are two reasons they have not started offering other grains like Teff and Amaranth:

Supply: These grains are not available in large enough quantities or can not be assured of a stable supply.

Purity: Many of these grains can not be guaranteed GF as they are often milled on contaminated mills.

Are Their Products Organic?Kinnikinnick Foods is unable to offer organic products for several reasons. Many of the specialized ingredients they use are simply not available as organic. Most mills grinding organic flours also grind non-GF grains, making them not suitable for GF use. Organic ingredients (even if they were available) would add a substantial cost to an already high cost product. They do make every effort to provide customers with the healthiest available food choices but our highest priority is to produce a truly GF product.

Gluten Free Answers

What Are Their Gluten Free Standards?Every product they produce is gluten free. All of their products are produced in their two dedicated Gluten Free facilities. All their ingredient suppliers are required to provide gluten free statements. All ingredients are tested using various gluten testing protocols in their lab by their food scientist. All products are randomly tested by the CFIA (Canadian equivalent of the FDA) as gluten free is a regulated term in Canada. They do not outsource any manufacturing so they maintain control of all processes at all times. Kinnikinnick Foods believes they take the most precautions of any company in the world to ensure their products are gluten free.Where Do They Get Their Gluten Free Ingredients?A key job at Kinnikinnick is held by their purchasing department. They track down GF ingredients, arrange for gluten statements from the supplier, bring in samples of new ingredients for testing in their lab and monitor any change notices from suppliers ensuring their supply chain is truly GF.Do They Test For Gluten?Every product they produce is gluten free. All new ingredients are tested using the High Sensitivity ELISA Gluten Test (HSEGT) in their lab by their food scientist. All major ingredients tested at each new shipment using the HSEGT in our lab. Minor ingredients are randomly tested using the HSEGT in their lab. All of their ingredients are spot checked using the Gluten rapid test kits. Products are randomly tested by the CFIA (Canadian equivalent of the FDA) as gluten free is a regulated term in Canada.What Does Kinnikinnick Foods Lab Do?In the Fall of 2006, Kinnikinnick opened it's new Quality Assurance Lab. This 800 sqft facility is located in the largest of their 2 facilities. This lab is tasked with providing complete product quality assurance. The lab tests for gluten and other allergens and pathogens. All arriving ingredients used in their products are tested for gluten in this lab based on several criteria which they have developed. It also monitors and controls product quality in terms of color, moisture content, texture several other quality points.What Is Gluten?Gluten is a sticky, long chain protein molecule that is found in many grains including Wheat, Barley, Rye, Kamut, Spelt and Oats. Gluten can be toxic to people with Celiac Disease. Gluten in wheat flour helps bread and other baked goods stick together and prevent crumbling. Gluten is used in many processed and packaged foods.What About Corn and Rice Gluten?Defining gluten can be somewhat confusing as it has become the generic term for a protein found in wheat, rye, triticale, spelt, kamut, barley, and oats. In fact, it is the portion of gluten molecule called the prolamins which is toxic for celiacs. The prolamins are gliadin in wheat, secalin in rye, horedin in barley and evedin in oats. Confusion arises when the word gluten is used in conjunction with corn or rice (corn gluten, glutinous rice). Technically speaking corn and rice do have a form of gluten but they do not have the toxic portion and are acceptable on a gluten free diet.What Are Gluten Free Grains?The following Grains and Starches are acceptable on a GF Diet:

Tapioca (Cassava, yucca, manioc)

Rice (brown, white, sweet)

Potato

Pea

Corn

Soy

Amaranth

Teff

Quinoa

Legume Flours (lentil, chickpea)

Buckwheat

Sorghum (milo)

Do Seeds Contain Gluten?Seeds such as sesame, sunflower, poppy, caraway and flax are acceptable on a GF diet.

Casein Free Answers

What Is Casein?Milk from all mammals is made up of lactose (milk sugar), proteins, and fats. Casein is a protein found in all kinds of milk (cow, goat, human etc). Casein is the main component of cheese. Note: Casein can sometimes be found in products labeled non-dairy in the form of sodium caseinate.Are All Of Kinnikinnick Foods' Products Casein Free?Almost all of their products are casein free. The following are NOT Casein Free:

Tapioca Rice Cheese Bread

Fruit Cake (seasonal)

Chocolate Covered Almond Biscotti

KinniBetik Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Kinniki-What???Before starting Kinnikinnick Foods, the founder of the company, Ted Wolf von Selzam was involved in environmental education and teaching programs. In teaching school groups about local flora and fauna, Ted found the story students remembered from year to year was the Kinnikinnick Story. Historically, Kinnikinnick or Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva ursi) has been an important plant for both wildlife and humans alike. The berries from this ground hugging bush last through winter when other fruits are gone and are especially important to black bears in the early spring when food is scarce. Native Americans used the leaves alone or with tobacco and other herbs. When it was mixed with tobacco, it was referred to as Kinnikinnick, from the Algonquin for mixture. When smoked in a sacred pipe, it is reputed to carry the smoker's prayers to the Great Spirit. A tea made from the leaves was used to treat urinary tract diseases, the leaves were powdered and applied to sores and the berries were made into a tea that was used to ward off obesity. The berries, which are very nutritious and high in vitamin C, were used during the winter months as an important supplement to their diet. They were fried or dried and used in pemmican. In searching for a name for a new business a number of objectives stand out. It should distinguish the company from other companies and be recognizable as different from the ordinary. It should be easy to remember (although not necessarily easy to spell). It should cause people to stop and think and to generate questions about the company. People are always inquiring about the origin of the name and this helps to strengthen our name and brand recognition. It should also have a symbolic meaning. The staples, like bread, are the leaves of the bush. The treats, like donuts, cookies, bagels and muffins, are the berries of the bush. And finally, the roots are the medicinal value since for the first time in their lives many of our clients have a variety of food that they know will contribute to their improved health. Kinnikinnick provides them with nutritious foods after their long cold winters of misdiagnosis and unsafe foods.

Kinnikinnick Foods' MissionTo provide Celiacs, people with Autism and other people with special dietary requirements with an uncontaminated, risk free source of food products. Their commitment to their customers is to have the best and safest gluten free product in the market. At the same time they want to provide a range and selection of bakery items that anyone would enjoy. Our products continue to improve they will find recognition as tasty alternative foods and will much more readily available. They also keep their focus on nutritional and food values so that they can provide the healthiest food possible. Their lab and test kitchen facilities continue to strive to make the best products in the market so that they can continue to say Gluten Free Has Never Tasted So Good.

History Of Kinnikinnick FoodsBack in the late 1980's, Ted Wolff Von Selzam was looking for a new career. He had spent some time in Germany working for a natural health co-op and had some experience in this emerging market. He began making bakery products for the Farmer's Market in Edmonton and one day someone asked him if he could make "gluten free" items. Ted then proceeded to make some of the worst gluten free products ever made (which is saying something). Ted had little baking experience, but we've often said that when developing GF recipes, not knowing how "it's supposed to work" can be a benefit. Ted persevered and began to make products for a growing number of clients at the Market. Soon after, he opened a 500 square foot store and brought in GF products such as cookies, and pasta's which he sold along with his baked goods. Ted continued to expand this business and to develop new breads, buns and cookies as part of the plan. By 1996, Kinnikinnick Foods was supplying the Edmonton market along with a small regional market in B.C and Saskatchewan.

By then, Ted had developed some of the best tasting GF foods available and one of his regular customers was Jerry Bigam, whose wife, Lynne, was Celiac. The Bigams bought into the company in 1997 with the idea that they could make some of these products available to a much wider audience. By then Kinnikinnick had a retail store and a small production space of about 3,000 square feet. One of the first decisions to be made was on the name. Should they look for a more sophisticated name since they were looking at expanding the market? And then in a flash it came to them - "People might not be able to pronounce it or spell it but they will remember it". Also the "Kinnikinnick Story" is kind of neat for a specialty health food company (see Kinniki-what???). Today with dozens of new entrants to the market with … GlutenFree-this and GlutenFree-that … there is still only one Kinnikinnick and people still can't spell it but they somehow remember it and find them.

Shortly after joining Kinnikinnick in 1997, Jay Bigam (son) suggested that there might be something to this new "internet' business that would allow us to make the company much better known. As they say the "rest is history". Kinnikinnick developed the first GF internet site and became one of the very first companies in the world to supply perishable food products using the internet. The company understood that you needed to have a reliable distribution system to support the internet business and over the next two years developed the shipping systems necessary. They survived the "dot.com" crash which saw many internet companies fail when they did not have the "bricks and mortar" necessary to support market demand. The internet wasn't a business for them, it was a tool. However, the internet was an invaluable tool for a growing company. Comments appeared on the internet saying how good the Kinnikinnick products were. All of a sudden, there were hundreds of people across North America who became their best sales people. They went into stores and told the managers how good the products were. Or they popped up on the web with their comments about new products or just how pleased they were to get decent GF food. At that time good quality, readily available GF food was the exception. Their internet site and over night delivery throughout North America meant that anyone could enjoy Kinnikinnick food. The only problem they had was the orders from the rest of the world that we could not supply.

The increasing popularity of Kinnikinnick products required a move to a new 10,000 square foot facility in 1998. New products continued to be added and their internet business grew dramatically. They expanded again in 2001 to 15,000 square feet and added new types of products like bagels, pizza crusts and donuts. By 2002 they were out of space again so moved to a new location with 30,000 square feet and "plenty of room" for future expansion. Lynne (wife) left her legal practice and joined the company and Jay was diagnosed with Celiac disease. By this time, their many internet customers were spreading the word and we supplied many of the Canadian retail store chains and were providing more and more products to US health food stores. One day they got a call from a large US food distributor who said that "your products are the most requested that we don't carry - how do we get you into our system". Again thanks to our internet customers who made retail stores aware of their products. It isn't known how many calls they got from store managers who said that they had an empty bag that a customer had dropped off asking him to carry Kinnikinnick products. Clearly consumers had considerable influence. About this time, Ted decided that having grown the company from 6 employees in 1997 to around 70, that he wanted to look at other career and family options. As a result their family acquired all of Kinnikinnick in early 2005.

By 2005 their large new facility was operating 2 shifts and running out of space. As it happened one of the largest cookie manufacturers in North America was located in Edmonton and when they closed down Kinnikinnick was able to acquire their second facility which contained 120,000 square feet with some of the most advanced equipment available. It took them 6 months to decontaminate the building and equipment. Today instead of producing 60 cookies per minute as in their old facility, they produce 3000 cookies a minute. They also can produce items like the KinniTOOS sandwich cookies that require a very sophisticated production line. Both of their operating plants are dedicated gluten free facilities as they have been from the start. Today their internet business is a small but important part of their business with the large majority of their products sold in retail stores throughout North America (including Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska). Kinnikinnick products are available much more readily than ever before and if it turns out you cannot find them locally or you cannot find a particular product you want then the internet is always available. In the future you will see the Kinnikinnick brand in other parts of the world.

Kinnikinnick has accelerated its product development to provide a much wider range of products. For example you can now find KinniKritters (animal cookies), KinniTOOS (chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookies) and S'Moreables (graham style cookies) at many retail stores. You can also find toaster waffles, donuts, cinnamon buns and a wide range of breads, buns, bagels, muffins and pizza crusts. All of these products are made in either of their two dedicated gluten free facilities. They have a number of new products in development and these will be introduced over the coming months. As they go forward, more and better competing products are entering the market and they know that they have to continue to innovate to keep the Kinnikinnick brand strong and relevant to new consumers.

Corporate PhilosophyKinnikinnick Foods is a company focused on their customers. They provide high quality food products to people with special needs. For these people, the choices are limited, often unpalatable and sometimes not available at all. They recognize that for these people the simple act of buying and preparing basic food is difficult at best. The enjoyment of "exotic" foods, like a hamburger, a bagel, a pizza or a donut is sometimes just a fond remembrance. Some children have never tasted a donut until they try one of Kinnikinnick Foods. They take great satisfaction in providing their products to those people with special dietary needs in all regions of North America. Their office receives numerous calls every week simply thanking us for helping them with their conditions and making a difference in their lives. Kinnikinnick Foods will continue to improve and expand our line of specialty products. They believe that more and more people will enjoy their line of products and view them as healthy and satisfying alternatives to other food lines. Kinnikinnick Foods will continue to be one of the leading producers of Alternative Foods in the coming years.

Manufacturer Info

About Kinnikinnick Foods

Kinnikinnick foods is a company focused on our customers. We provide high quality food products to people with special needs. For these people, the choices are limited, often unpalatable and sometimes not available at all. We recognize that for these people the simple act of buying and preparing basic food is difficult at best. The enjoyment of "exotic" foods, like a hamburger, a bagel, a pizza or a donut is sometimes just a fond remembrance. Some children have never tasted a donut until they try one of ours. We take great satisfaction in providing our products to those people with special dietary needs in all regions of north america. Our office receives numerous calls every week simply thanking us for helping them with their conditions and making a difference in their lives.

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